


The Perfect Gift

by Mayoki



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: BrOT4, Bromance, Fluff, Gen, Humor, This is why Ignis is the party's chef
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 06:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3639978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mayoki/pseuds/Mayoki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'I'm baking him a cake. You can either stand there gawping or get a damn apron and help me.'</p><p>'Do you know how to bake?'</p><p>'No, but I'm a fast learner.'</p><p>In which Noctis decides that salmonella makes a fantastic birthday gift, and Prompto and Gladiolus try to help. And everything ends up coated in a light dusting of flour. Or on fire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perfect Gift

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this came from. Well, I was baking a lot yesterday ready for an Easter fete, so maybe that's why. I regret nothing.
> 
> Noctis might be a bit OOC, but I was trying to capture the fact that as a young prince he won't have had experience in a kitchen. In general I think he'll have been a bit sheltered from the culinary world, but he has the determination to try bless him. Thank god he has his bros. D:

'Your highness?' asked one of the chefs, as the dark haired prince suddenly appeared in the doorway. Of course they knew him on sight, but he'd never seen the prince set foot inside the royal kitchens before. 'Can I help you?'

'I…need you to leave. All of you,' Noctis said, looking around the large kitchen nervously.

'Leave? But we need to start preparing for the palace meals,' the man answered in confusion.

'It's okay. We'll get take out,' Noctis said. 'I'll take the blame. You can all have the rest of the day off, full pay.'

'I…thank you. Your highness,' the man said, clearly confused, but not about to deny a request from the crown prince. Especially when he was going to get the day off.

The chefs were cleared out of the kitchen five minutes later, and Noctis was finally alone. Swallowing hard, Noctis went over to one of the shelves lined with books, and began flipping through the pages. There were lots of nice things, but nothing was _quite right_. There was an entire book on cakes which proved even more problematic because there was simply so much to choose from. With a sigh Noctis found himself a stool and sat at one of the preparation areas to read through the book, flipping the pages in frustration. What would Ignis like? He wasn't a chocolate fan, Noctis knew that. Maybe carrot cake? But was carrot cake even appropriate for a birthday? It seemed kind of boring. A lemon drizzle caught his eye, but he dismissed it as being too lemony. The recipe called for a _lot_ of lemons. The Battenberg looked too complicated. The princess cake would have Gladiolus and Prompto teasing him for years to come. The tiramisu appealed to his own love of coffee, but he knew Ignis preferred tea. Was there a tea cake he could make?

'Ah!' Noctis had a flash of inspiration. He remembered a long time ago Ignis had sat with a cup of tea and a slice of some boring looking cake. Apparently it was something his mother had made a lot during his childhood. Something traditional from his home country. What was it…? Noctis flipped through the book again, studying the photos until he came to almost the last page. There it was. The perfect cake for Ignis: Victoria sponge. And best of all it looked really, really easy to make.

With that cake in mind he turned one of the huge ovens on to the correct temperature. He found a glass mixing bowl and then started looking for ingredients in the rows of cupboards. It took a while, but he finally found flour. This was just too easy. With a smug smile he tipped the pack and dumped the flour into the bowl on the scales. A white cloud exploded, and Noctis stumbled back in surprise, coughing. He backed right into the stool he had been sitting on and tripped, dropping the bag in the process. This flour cloud was even more impressive, and Noctis was coughing even more as a fine layer of flour clung to his hair and clothes. And the floor. And the work surfaces. And…well everything.

There was a snicker of laughter from the doorway, and when Noctis turned around sharply to tell the servant to leave he groaned. It wasn't a servant at all, but Prompto. And his so-called friend was snapping the scene on his phone.

'So, Queen Elsa, you done plunging the kitchen of Lucis into an eternal winter?'

'Prom I swear to god-'

'Oh come on, it's kind of funny. You look adorable.'

Noctis glared so much that his eyes shifted to red in warning.

Prompto held up his hands in defeat. 'Sorry, sorry. But you brought it on yourself. What are you even _doing?'_

With a sigh Noctis glanced at the mess he had made. The recipe book was buried under a pile of flour. 'It's Ignis's birthday today.'

'Ah, gotcha,' Prompto said, following the prince's gaze to the counter. He sniggered again.

Noctis's eyes flashed once more. 'I'm making him a cake. You can either stand there gawping or get a damn apron and help me.'

'Do you know how to bake?'

'No, but I'm a fast learner.'

'Have you ever set foot in a kitchen before?'

'No, but I've seen them on television.'

Prompto smiled and placed a hand on Noctis's shoulder. His fingers left prints in the flour. 'Noct. It's really sweet of you to want to do this for him, but why don't you get one of the chefs to make it? You can ice it or something, to say you helped. Or buy one?'

'I'm not _buying_ him a cake, and I'm not letting a chef make it for me. I want to show him how much I appreciate all he does for me, it would completely ruin the point of it if I didn't bake it myself.'

'Better that than have him go down with food poisoning,' Prompto pointed out delicately. Apparently not delicately enough.

'My baking is fine,' Noctis said.

'You just said you've never baked before.'

'I'm sure my baking is fine,' Noctis corrected himself. 'There are only a few steps in the recipe, I can't go wrong.'

Prompto pointedly glanced at the flour explosion.

'The bag was faulty,' Noctis insisted. 'Get an apron, Argentum. You're helping.'

'Apron? With you cooking I think I need full body armour,' Prompto said, but picked up one of the discarded aprons the chefs had left.

From the doorway someone cleared their throat. 'Uh, your highness? You do realise that you're in a kitchen, right?'

Noctis groaned. 'Not you too. I'm well aware of where I am, thank you.'

Gladiolus smirked and wandered into the kitchen, taking in the sight of Noctis covered head to toe in white powder. 'Just checking. If you want coffee there are people that can get it for you.'

'He's baking a cake for Ignis's birthday,' Prompto said as he tied the apron up. 'And now I'm helping to make sure he doesn't poison anyone.'

'Why would my cake be poisonous?'

'Have you ever cooked before?' Gladiolus asked, trying to find an apron in his size.

'Why does that matter? Nobody starts off as chefs, we all have to have a first go at some point.'

'Usually the first go is when you're about five, though. And then you improve,' Prompto pointed out. 'By the time you're eighteen you should be able to knock out something halfway decent.'

'Well excuse me if baking took a backseat to more import things,' Noctis said hotly.

'Like learning how to drink coffee, and I quote, _like a prince_ ,' Gladiolus said, bursting into laughter. Prompto joined him.

'Are you two going to help or just stand there laughing all day?'

'Sorry,' Gladiolus said, appraising at the mess again. 'I think you've got enough on the scales so we won't have to go and buy more.'

Noctis tipped the flour into the bowl more carefully this time, then checked the ingredients list. 'Butter. Um…'

'Fridge,' Prompto said helpfully.

'I know where it's kept,' Noctis said with a frown. 'I just don't know where the fridge is.'

'Big white thing over there,' Gladiolus nodded to the corner of the room, where there were several tall standing fridges.

'Thanks,' Noctis wandered over and opened one up. Damn they had a lot of stuff. Well the kitchens prepared meals for all the royal staff, so he supposed it made sense. It made the task of finding something specific impossible, though. The butter turned out to be in fridge number two, and he carried it back and cut off enough that the recipe required.

'Got you the sugar, it's pretty heavy,' Gladiolus said. 'Want me to pour it?'

'Sure,' Noctis watched carefully to make sure the exact amount of grains were going in. This cake was going to be _perfect_ dammit.

'Egg,' Prompto said, handing one over.

Noctis looked at it strangely. 'It's all hard.'

Prompto snorted, and patted him on the shoulder. 'That's how they come.'

'I knew that,' Noctis said, looking at it suspiciously. He had vague recollections of a dippy egg, and a hard shell around the white bit. It was just odd seeing it like that all covered in shell. He really needed to brush up on his cooking skills, he was terribly sheltered. He placed the egg in the bowl with the ingredients.

His friends laughed.

'Now what?' Noctis asked.

'You…you have to crack it, dumbass!' Prompto said, since Gladiolus was doubled over and unable to speak. 'You don't want the shell in it, it'll make the cake all crunchy and inedible.'

Well it had seemed a little strange when he was doing it… Noctis felt a blush colouring his cheeks as he plucked the egg out of the bowl and brushed sugar and butter off the shell. He stared at it for a long moment. The bit he needed was inside. Prompto had said it needed cracking. So he squeezed the egg in his fingers.

'No!' Gladiolus said, several seconds too late.

'Oww!' Noctis said, drawing his hand back as sharp bits of shell bit into his fingers. The egg was slimy and horrible and it went all over the floor as he clutched his hand protectively.

Gladiolus had his face in his hands, Prompto was trying very hard not to laugh again. Noctis whimpered. 'I hate baking. This is stupid.'

'Come here,' Prompto said sympathetically, leading him by the wrist over to a sink. The blonde washed egg from Noctis's hands and then once they were towelled dry he wrapped little plasters from the first aid box around each finger that had a little cut on it. 'Next time wait for us to tell you how to do it, okay?'

'Okay,' Noctis muttered. They went back to the bowl where Gladiolus had picked free the shells from the ingredients and was holding another egg.

'You crack it on the side of the bowl like this,' the older man said, demonstrating. 'Then you open it up and pour.' Gladiolus made it look so easy. Clearly he'd been practicing, or he'd been a chef in a previous life.

Still feeling a bit put out that he hadn't turned out to be a culinary master on his first try, Noctis referred back to the cook book. He mentally ticked off all the ingredients, happy that nothing else was going to injure him now. Then he moved on to the instructions. 'Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg…oh.' His voice was so deflated that Prompto gave him a hug.

'You didn't read the method first, did you?' Prompto asked, his voice quivering with the need to laugh, but trying to stay neutral since he could tell Noctis was disappointed.

'They put the ingredients first. They didn't say you have to jump about over the page, I was just doing it in order,' Noctis explained.

Prompto hugged him tighter. Flour irritated his nose. 'Well maybe it'll turn out okay if we just stir it all together?'

'Worth a shot,' Gladiolus said, and dug through drawers to find an electric mixer. He plugged it in then went to hand it over…and paused, with a glance to Noctis's bandaged fingers and clothing that was covered in flour and egg. 'Uh, maybe I should?'

'Why? I'll be fine,' Noctis insisted, taking the machine. The whisk bits obviously went into the mixture, so he did that, then clicked it on. 'Whoa!' He dropped the machine. Ingredients flew out everywhere, splattering all three of them in the face as Gladiolus scrambled to turn the switch off at the wall.

Gladiolus glared through a mask of flour and sugar.

'Well I wasn't expecting that to happen,' Noctis said defensively. 'I'll have another go.'

The mixing went a little easier after that, and when his arm got tired Gladiolus took over and finished it up while Noctis found two round baking tins. They lined them with greaseproof paper then poured half the mixture in each, and slipped the trays into the oven.

'Well, that wasn't so hard,' Noctis said. The other two just looked at him as if he was insane. 'Well on a scale of one to ten-'

'That was a disaster,' Gladiolus finished.

'It could have gone better. But we have a cake. The hard part is done, now I just have to spread it with jam and cream, and then I can give it to Ignis and he'll be happy and have a great birthday.'

'You have to make the cream first,' Prompto reminded him.

'What?' Noctis frowned, and looked at the recipe. There was a box to the right entitled "making the cream filling". Noctis groaned. 'More baking. Great.'

Gladiolus clapped him on the shoulder. 'Just think, with all this practice you'll be a chef in no time.'

'Okay, so I'll read the method first this time,' Noctis said, peering at the page. 'Easy enough, just beat the butter and add icing sugar. Someone get the butter back.'

'Be careful with the icing sugar, it gets everywhere,' Gladiolus said. Then paused to look at the already flour coated prince. 'Actually you know what, never mind.'

Noctis's arm ached after a minute of beating the butter, so he allowed Gladiolus to take over again as the appointed muscle of Team Noctis. Then Noctis began shaking in the icing sugar as Gladiolus worked, until they had something "light and creamy" as the book recommended.

Noctis peered at it. 'Is it supposed to have those bits in it?'

Gladiolus frowned and poked at the creamy substance. 'I don't think so.'

'What is it?' Noctis asked.

Prompto squeezed between them and took a look. 'You probably should have sifted the icing sugar, those are lumps of it.'

'Ah,' Gladiolus said. 'Yeah, didn't it say that in the recipe?'

'Probably, but I was only skim reading it,' Noctis admitted. 'Can we pick them out?'

'All of them?' Gladiolus asked.

'Well what does it taste like? Try it,' Noctis commanded.

'It tastes alright. And it'll be inside the cake so he won't even notice,' Gladiolus said, sucking butter cream from his finger.

'Mmn, at least the cake smells good,' Prompto said. 'How long is it supposed to be in for?'

'What?' Noctis asked.

'How long is the cake meant to bake for? And what time did we put it in?' Prompto asked.

'What?' Noctis said again.

'…It's burning, isn't it?' Prompto deadpanned, then sighed and fetched oven gloves.

'I didn't know they predicted the times things take to cook,' Noctis explained to Gladiolus, who just shook his head

'Oh no!' Prompto cried.

'Is it burned?' Noctis asked fearfully.

'Well the greaseproof paper is slightly on fire, but I can fix that,' Prompto said, extinguishing the little flame. 'But you used plain flour! They're as flat as a pancake,' Prompto groaned.

'Wait, there's more than one type of flour?' Noctis asked. 'Whose stupid idea was that? Baking is confusing.'

'You are just the worst chef ever, this stuff is really obvious!' Prompto said, brandishing a cake tin at Noctis. Then he felt a bit guilty at the hurt look in Noctis's eyes; it wasn't really his fault. His mother had died when he was very young, and his father was a king. There was no one for him to have done things like this with growing up. But still…

They all looked at the thin cakes. Then at the lumpy butter cream. Then at the horrendous mess. And they cracked up laughing.

The sponges were scraped out and stuck back together with lashings of cream and raspberry jam as they fell apart. The whole thing was disguised with icing sugar so it didn't look quite so pathetic. Noctis eyed his creation, which was barely an inch tall.

'It doesn't quite look like the picture,' he said slowly.

'No. No it doesn't,' Gladiolus said carefully. 'But it's…well…it's unique. And you tried.'

'Gold star for effort,' Prompto nodded encouragingly.

'Okay. Well, now I can give it to him,' Noctis said nervously. 'Is it good enough to give to him? Should I chuck it out and buy him one?'

'Certainly not,' said a heavily accented voice.

All three men jumped and spun around, and found the birthday boy leaning against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest, looking neat and prim and proper. While they were covered head to foot in ingredients.

'Uh, happy birthday!' Prompto said quickly. 'How long have you been watching us? Please tell me you didn't see the egg bit.'

'Just a few moments. I was wondering where you all were, and a servant mentioned that the chefs had been given the day off and that there was a lot of noise coming from the kitchens. Naturally I came to investigate, and caught the tail end of your conversation.'

Noctis swallowed hard, and glanced back at his creation. 'Well, actually it didn't go right. So I'm sorry, but I think I need to go and buy you a birthday cake to make up for it.'

Ignis shook his head. Slowly he made his way over, careful not to slip on the egg that hadn't been cleared up. He took in the poor excuse for a Victoria sponge and a smile lit up his face. 'My mother always made these on a Sunday for my family.'

'Bet hers were taller,' Prompto muttered.

'It's perfect. You remembered it was my favourite, and you bothered to make it for me, so it's perfect,' Ignis said, feeling warmth inside his chest. He turned and took in his friends; from the flour to the plasters on Noctis's fingers, and he stepped forward and pulled Noctis and Prompto into a hug, motioning for Gladiolus to join them too. Large arms went about him, and they embraced for a long moment.

Noctis finally smiled, melting into his friend's arms. 'Happy birthday, Ignis. Sorry it's a mess, but-'

'It's perfect,' Ignis insisted. 'Shall we have a drink and cut it?'

So they sat around a messy kitchen work top and drank cups of tea with a slice of cake. It didn't taste terrible, though they all agreed that Noctis would never be baking again. Ever. For his own safety and that of everyone around him.


End file.
